Loss to Lakers sinks Spurs deeper into No. 2 seed

A throng of purple-and-gold clad fans, 19,000 strong, shuffled into the StaplesCenter on Sunday night to properly eulogize the end of Kobe Bryant’s season, and perhaps the end of his team’s as well.

A funny thing happened on the way to the 2012-13 Los Angeles Lakers being laid to rest. It was the Spurs who showed up looking like the walking dead.

Behind a big game from Dwight Howard, Steve Blake’s “Black Mamba” impression and a 3-point barrage in the fourth quarter, the Lakers began life after Kobe-geddon by beating the lifeless Spurs 91-86.

“We didn’t match their energy at all,” Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. “I just thought we floated through the game.”

Howard finished with 26 points and 17 rebounds, while Blake poured in 18 of his 23 in the first half to help guide the possibly season-saving win.

With it, the Lakers (44-37) remained in control for the final playoff seed in the Western Conference, a game and a half ahead of Utah. L.A. can clinch the bid with a win over Houston on Wednesday.

“We’ve done half the work,” L.A. coach Mike D’Antoni said.

For the Spurs, now 58-22 and clearly scuffling, the defeat all but mathematically seals them into the No. 2 seed behind Oklahoma City, eyeing a first-round series with either Houston or Golden State.

“All in all, just our focus wasn’t right,” forward Tim Duncan said. “Our energy wasn’t right. We didn’t play well for a long time.”

Playing for the first time since Bryant, 34, ruptured his left Achilles tendon Friday night against the Warriors, the Lakers were tasked with finishing their push for the No. 8 seed without the player most responsible for hauling them this far.

“It makes you sick to your stomach,” he said. “You play hard all year with the opportunity to get into the playoffs, and at the end of the year to have it snatched away from you — it’s unthinkable.”

For one night at least, the Lakers gave away nothing.

Tied at 61 entering the fourth quarter, the Lakers pushed the game open with five 3-pointers in 4 ½-minute span, three from Antawn Jamison and two from Jodie Meeks. That sparked a 19-9 run to put L.A. ahead by nine, and proved to be enough.

The Spurs got 23 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks from Duncan, who passed Charles Barkley for 22nd on the NBA’s all-time scoring chart.

“He’s really the only guy on the team that played like someone who wants to win a championship,” Popovich said.

The Spurs’ other All-Star, Tony Parker, struggled through a 1-for-10 night and – just like a loss at Oklahoma City earlier this month – finished the game on the bench with four points.

“It wasn’t because he was resting,” Popovich said of the call to replace Parker with Cory Joseph down the stretch. “He was playing awful.”

Popovich knew Bryant would be irreplaceable for the Lakers, calling him the team’s “heart and soul.” Yet in the short term, with the playoffs on the line, Popovich did not doubt the Lakers’ ability to pull together without their fallen star.

Before tipoff, D’Antoni made clear the onus of replacing Bryant would not just fall on Howard’s broad shoulders.

“I don’t want anybody to think it’s all on him,” D’Antoni said.

For much of the night, Howard played as if it was, attacking Duncan in the low block and the rim with a vengeance. His play helped soften a 3-for-17 night from Pau Gasol.

It was Blake, however, who gave the Lakers their most Mamba-like lift. Technically replacing Steve Nash, the Lakers’ other injured former All-Star, Blake provided a Kobe-esque 18 points and four 3-pointers in the first half.

Popovich tried to change the game’s momentum in the third quarter by purposefully fouling Howard, a 49.4-percent free-throw shooter, on five possessions.

It worked, but only to an extent. Howard converted only four of 10 foul shots during that stretch, but the score was still tied at 61 heading into the final frame. Howard finished 8 of 17 from the free-throw line, but was 4 of 4 in the final 1:37 to help the Lakers finish the game.

“We just played hard,” Howard said. “We trusted each other, and we dominated.”

By night’s end, the once-mourning Staples Center crowd was on its feet. The patient had pulled through. The funeral had become a party, at the Spurs’ expense.

“The Lakers played with a lot of energy, for a lot of different reasons,” Parker said. “We didn’t match that.”